Going to the "Mountaintop" to Listen to God

In today's Gospel, Matthew 17: 1-9, Jesus takes Peter, James and John up a high mountain by themselves.  Jesus is transfigured before them, his face bright as the sun and his clothes white as a bright light.  they see Jesus in His glory and in conversation with Moses and Elijah. Peter is so excited that he says to Jesus: Lord, let us build three tents here: one for you, one for Moses and one for Elijah.  Suddenly a cloud covers them and they hear a voice say: This is my beloved Son with whom I am well pleased. Listen to Him. Hearing the voice of God, the disciples fall to their knees frightened. Jesus touches then and says:  "Rise, and do not be afraid."  they look up and see only Jesus.

Like Peter, James, John and Jesus, this mountaintop experience was to bolster their spirits, as the time was nearing for Jesus to go up to Jerusalem, where He would be crucified.  We need and are given these "mountaintop" experiences in order that we, too, will be strengthened to pick up our crosses and go "up" to the Calvaries of our lives.

Just as Jesus invited Peter, James and John to the mountaintop with Him, so, too, does He invite us to come away with him to a high mountain.  Every day, however we choose to seek God's face, we need to take time out for prayer, be that in the solitude of nature, in a quiet place at work, or dropping into an  empty church on our way home from work.  Or, possibly, while at work, we might slip away
at lunch time to speak to the Lord, thanking Him for the graces of the morning and asking for guidance before we take up our responsibilities for the afternoon.  Jesus wants to touch our hearts and speak to us, just as He spoke to the apostles. Just as the three apostles heard the Spirit say to them: "This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased; listen to him," so, too,do we need to listen to Jesus. It is important to create that kind of quiet in our lives to hear God's voice.

When was the last time, you or I sought the kind of solitude in which God's voice can be heard?

Meditation: a gift of incredible value

The Sisters of the Sorrowful Mother, according to their Rule or Constitution, set aside a minimum of 30 minutes each day for meditation upon the Scriptures or another source of spiritual nourishment. This morning I meditated on the first reading of today’s liturgy (Col.2:6-15). What an awesome reading in which we are reminded that we share in the fullness of the diety in human form in Christ Jesus.  We share in the fullness; we do not, obviously, possess the fullness. But even to share in the fullness of the diety is awesome.  How is it that we are given this gift? St. Paul  tells us that, on the cross, Jesus took our transgressions upon Himself, obliterated them,  removed them, nailed them to the cross.  All that causes death was nailed to the Cross with Christ and all that causes new life in God was raised to life with Jesus. In baptism, we, too, die and rise with Christ. The self that was alienated from God and the things of God by sin and selfishness, greed and lust for power, prestige and worldly pleasures—the allurements of the world, worldly philosophies and ideologies—was buried with Christ at our baptisms.  We rose with Christ through the same power that raised Jesus from the dead. The self that rose with Christ is a new self. We put on Jesus Christ in baptism.  We are now rooted in Christ Jesus.  Our hearts have been circumcised , that is, we underwent a spiritual circumcision, not a physical one.  Our hearts, not a physical part of our bodies, were changed by baptism into Christ.  By dying and rising with Christ in our baptisms and through the faith that was given to us in baptism,  we are now spiritually dead to sin, selfishness, worldly philosophies and ideologies, jealousies, lusts for power, prestige and popularity, fear of death (saving the self, not losing it in love, in truth, in purity). We rose with Christ transformed into new persons, reconciled to God and to one another. What a grace!